Although not a true BEAM robot, this simple schematic by Randy Sargent is small, simple, slick, and effective. My own version uses a pair of pager motors and three cells from a 9V rechargeable battery. Hard to get any simpler than this device!
It's been in the coming for a while, and now is the time to release it to the webosphere (yes, I said "Web-o-sphere").
Since Solarbotics Ltd. took over HVW Technologies, we simply couldn't ignore some of the benefits of microcontrollers. Really, they're not that scary. Many of them even look like our good friend the 74AC240 IC.
We're starting our blending of technologies with the PICAXE line of microcontrollers. These have some specific features that make them very usable with BEAM projects:
So if you've become too comfortable with your latest techniques, try something new. Stretch your brain, and check out the PICAXE. We've even got starter packs, and a book!
Besides the PICAXE, we're also dabbling with the Freeduino SB. This is a project spawned from the Arduino project out of Italy. It's an open-source hardware and software project using the Atmel ATmega168 microcontroller.The really cool thing is that that it's open-source, there's a huge world-wide community of developers and users, so there's lots of help, source-code, and examples to start with.
It's more expensive than the PICAXE, but it's a different beast. Where the PICAXE is generally just the chip, Freeduino is a full system. Besides the microcontroller, the Freeduino includes:
So if you're more programming savvy than flowcharts and BASIC, check out a Freeduino SB, and do some web-searches. It's an very useable, handy platform!
Although not a true BEAM robot, this simple schematic by Randy Sargent is small, simple, slick, and effective. My own version uses a pair of pager motors and three cells from a 9V rechargeable battery. Hard to get any simpler than this device!
Well, 2010 is in full swing and we've been pretty busy. We don't have any new product to show off this week, but our Flickr feed has been getting a lot of love - we just received our first pick and place machine(s), and we've uploaded all of our magazine ads. Well, I guess that's […]
Whups! Sorry, we got a fact wrong listing Mark's lecture at the Goddard Space Flight Center. It's not in Houston, Texas - it's in Greenbelt, Maryland (March 23). Our apologies to Goddard Space Flight Center - I'm sure they weren't looking forward to a 1400 mile moveÂ…
This just in - our country is awesome. Now, we all know what you're thinking. "Yeah? Well my country is awesome too, and yours didn't even make it to the World Cup!" We certainly can't argue that your country is awesome as well. As for the World Cup... You wanna know what we think of […]
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Warning: This product contains chemicals known to the State of California to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm.
Please visit www.P65Warnings.ca.gov for more information. This item was manufactured prior to August 31, 2018.